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I have been reading up on the wonders of HTPC & I am planning on building a system that will sit under & connect to my Tosh picture frame TV. This will play play my movies/mp3's and be used as a PVR for freeview TV, as well as usual PC tasks.

The possible baseline setup is as follows (any suggestions on whether , or ugly would be appreciated):

for Gfx i went for 3D Connect radeon 9600 pro, you can get one for about £60 these days and it's fanless, so nice & quiet..

What CPU was in your dell? that will help answer the RAM question..

If I was you i'd forget about the P4 and go the AMD route, you'll have a CPU 95% as fast and lots cheaper... Also the Asus NForce2 boards have a damn good sound chip on board.. ( the only one that will do 'real' 5.1 for games as far as I know )

You'll also want a couple of vantec 80mm fans for the back of your case.. about £10 each

I've squeezed 3 200gb seagate drives into mine, and it still runs nice & cool even though the case is fully soundproofed ( Paxmate foam, apply liberally to all flat surfaces )

I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean, whenever one door closes I hope one more opens.
Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance, and when you get the choice to sit it out or dance...Lee Ann Womack - I hope you dance.

Distinguished Member

RAM will certainly be OK.. no worries there.
You might even fit all that RAM in your new board if you are killing the dell

You've spec'd up a VERY nice system mate, not too much else to say really..

Are you butchering the dell for CPu as well ?

If so fair enough, go for the P4 board, but if not, save some cash and get the athlon 2500 (£50), you're way over-spec for a HTPC cpu-wise...

On the accent cases a square of paxmate on the inside of the CD flap keeps the drives *silent* even when ripping at high speeds.

With a truepower psu and a front soundproofed accent case, the cpu fan will be the only thing you ever hear.. Spend some cash on a quiet CPU cooler, either a zalman flower ( should just about fit) or a Scythe kamakaze

( I've got the scythe, running at 1750rpm is totally silent and stills cools very well )

I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean, whenever one door closes I hope one more opens.
Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance, and when you get the choice to sit it out or dance...Lee Ann Womack - I hope you dance.

I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean, whenever one door closes I hope one more opens.
Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance, and when you get the choice to sit it out or dance...Lee Ann Womack - I hope you dance.

Distinguished Member

nebula loads in 1-2 secs on my system and hasn't crashed on me yet.
Picture should be miles better than your Hauppage from what I've seen..

PVR is good too, built into the main interface so no faffing about

Make sure to download the latest version software from Nebula's website if you do go for it, the version that ships with the card is glitchy but they do regular updates.

I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean, whenever one door closes I hope one more opens.
Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance, and when you get the choice to sit it out or dance...Lee Ann Womack - I hope you dance.